A study was just released which shows that the Greenland ice sheet melted at the fastest rate last year since records were begun in 1979. The reason this is such a significant report is that the Greenland ice sheet is a major contributor to future rising sea levels.
In the report, Marco Tedesco, director of the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory at The City College of New York, states, "Over the past 30 years, the area subject to melting in Greenland has been increasing" at about 17,000 square kilometers a year, Tedesco stated on his research website. "This is equivalent to adding a melt-region the size of Washington state every ten years," he added. "Or, in alternative, this means that an area of the size of France melted in 2010 which was not melting in 1979." (emphasis mine) Since Greenland contains around 1/20th of the world's ice, if completely melted, it could increase sea levels by 21 feet. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41197838/ns/us_news-environment/
Another interesting report released which follows along these same lines focuses on the loss of arctic reflectivity which, in turn, is increasing global warming. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the report shows that over the past 30 years the Earth's ability to reflect solar heat has been significantly decreased due to ice and snow melt.
Of course, I found several nuggets which I love shown in the highlighted portions of the following excerpts (emphasis mine), "uncovered data that shows over the past 30 years the decreases in the amount of snow and ice covering the Earth’s surface has decreased the reflective capacity of the Earth and exacerbated global warming much more than previous climate models had estimated".
And then a quote from one of the scientists who helped conduct the study says, “Our analysis of snow and sea ice changes over the last 30 years indicates that this cryospheric feedback is almost twice as strong as what models have simulated. The implication is that Earth’s climate may be more sensitive to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and other perturbations than models predict.” See http://planetsave.com/2011/01/19/loss-of-arctic-reflectivity-intensify-global-warming/
And there it is AGAIN! I repeat, whatever time given by the big brains of the science world concerning future climate change is almost always horrendously over calculated. Never undercalculated, mind you, but consistantly overcalculated. And these days they are blaming their blatant mistakes on computer model simulations. That's like blaming a drunk driving car accident on the car's performance and not on the driver who operates the vehicle. The only way a computer can give any kind of a "prediction" is by the data which is entered into it by the big brains.
And why do I harp on this so relentlessly? Because, by over calculating catastrophic climate change and global warming events, the big brains lull the majority of the world into a FALSE sense of security. If people don't feel threatened then they won't take steps to prepare. That simple.
Let me know what you think!
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